Over the past month or so I have encountered many comments on various blogs in which the commenters explicitly cited God's apparent unresponsiveness in light of everything that has occurred in connection with the birdemic. Some commenters lamented feeling abandoned by God; others expressed disappointment at the perceived and seemingly conspicuous lack of signs or communication from God. For many, the church closures did little more than rub salt into these despondent wounds.
Though I don't agree with these perspectives at all, I can understand where many of these commenters are coming from. I suspect most of these commenters are good, solid Christians who pray daily, read the Gospels regularly, and had attended churches before they closed. In other words, they were probably doing everything good, solid Christians are supposed to do. In light of this, I can certainly understand their frustration and discontent. After all, the evil in the world has magnified immensely in the past five or six weeks. Seen from the fixed perspective of most good, solid Christians, God does appear to have been rather unresponsive thus far.
Yet, perhaps there is a reason for God's seeming unresponsiveness - a reason that has everything to do with co-respondence. By co-respondence, I am not referring to an exchange of letters, but rather to the notion that perhaps God's seeming unresponsiveness to us has a great deal to do with our unresponsiveness to Him.
I cannot believe God has ceased communicating with us. What I can believe is the notion that perhaps our communications with God - those tried and true, good, solid Christian methods of communication that served so well in earlier times - have become inadequate and insufficient in the here and now. By the same token, our adherence to these tried and true methods of communication might very well be making us deaf and blind to God's communication. Simply put, perhaps God does not appear to be responding to us because we are not properly responding to Him.
I believe God is our loving father, and that he desires what is best for his children. Like all loving fathers, God wants his children to grow up and mature. This entails different approaches to and different levels of communication. God has taken this step forward; we in turn, have not. Put another way, God is trying to talk to us like adults, but we continue to talk and listen to him like adolescents (and fairly apathetic adolescents at that).
God will respond to us once we understand how we should begin responding to him. Part of responding to him as adults must contain an element of understanding our role as Co-Creators. According to Berdyaev, the next step in Christianity involves not only Man discovering himself in God, but also God discovering Himself in Man. This type of discovery necessitates a new, unprecedented form of co-respondence. It includes viewing God from an entirely new perspective - not as some distant, autocratic ruler one must obsequiously and blindly tremble before and obey, but a relatable friend and partner one can love and work cooperatively with, in the same manner an adult son or daughter can love and work cooperatively with a loving parent.
The co-creation Berdyaev speaks of involves a recognition of our latent spiritual creativity. This creativity is not the same as or equal to God's, but serves to complement it. By the same token, God's creativity is not the same as Man's, but God's creativity alone no longer appears sufficient. God is not responding to us because our communications with him are not creative. God will respond to us fully the moment we begin creatively communicating with Him. Once we learn to do that, we become Co-Creators. Our creative spirituality will become enhanced through God, and God's creative spirituality will become enhanced through us. The new co-respondence involves a fortifying and enhancement of both God and Man, a fortification and enhancement that can occur only when we understand our creative role.
Spiritual creativity requires initiative from us. This initiative must derive from freedom. According to William Arkle, once Man shows this initiative, he escapes all determinism and becomes actively creative - to the point that God can no longer accurately predict what Man will do. This is the essence of Co-Creation. This is the essence of the latent spiritual power within us - a latent spiritual power demonstrated fully by Christ.
To sum up, God may appear unresponsive to us because we are essentially unresponsive to Him. The good, solid, traditional methods of communication are no longer sufficient or adequate. The way forward requires spiritual growing-up by embracing freedom and becoming Co-Creators, and it will likely involve a process akin to Romantic Christianity and Berdyaev's third epoch of Christianity.
Though I don't agree with these perspectives at all, I can understand where many of these commenters are coming from. I suspect most of these commenters are good, solid Christians who pray daily, read the Gospels regularly, and had attended churches before they closed. In other words, they were probably doing everything good, solid Christians are supposed to do. In light of this, I can certainly understand their frustration and discontent. After all, the evil in the world has magnified immensely in the past five or six weeks. Seen from the fixed perspective of most good, solid Christians, God does appear to have been rather unresponsive thus far.
Yet, perhaps there is a reason for God's seeming unresponsiveness - a reason that has everything to do with co-respondence. By co-respondence, I am not referring to an exchange of letters, but rather to the notion that perhaps God's seeming unresponsiveness to us has a great deal to do with our unresponsiveness to Him.
I cannot believe God has ceased communicating with us. What I can believe is the notion that perhaps our communications with God - those tried and true, good, solid Christian methods of communication that served so well in earlier times - have become inadequate and insufficient in the here and now. By the same token, our adherence to these tried and true methods of communication might very well be making us deaf and blind to God's communication. Simply put, perhaps God does not appear to be responding to us because we are not properly responding to Him.
I believe God is our loving father, and that he desires what is best for his children. Like all loving fathers, God wants his children to grow up and mature. This entails different approaches to and different levels of communication. God has taken this step forward; we in turn, have not. Put another way, God is trying to talk to us like adults, but we continue to talk and listen to him like adolescents (and fairly apathetic adolescents at that).
God will respond to us once we understand how we should begin responding to him. Part of responding to him as adults must contain an element of understanding our role as Co-Creators. According to Berdyaev, the next step in Christianity involves not only Man discovering himself in God, but also God discovering Himself in Man. This type of discovery necessitates a new, unprecedented form of co-respondence. It includes viewing God from an entirely new perspective - not as some distant, autocratic ruler one must obsequiously and blindly tremble before and obey, but a relatable friend and partner one can love and work cooperatively with, in the same manner an adult son or daughter can love and work cooperatively with a loving parent.
The co-creation Berdyaev speaks of involves a recognition of our latent spiritual creativity. This creativity is not the same as or equal to God's, but serves to complement it. By the same token, God's creativity is not the same as Man's, but God's creativity alone no longer appears sufficient. God is not responding to us because our communications with him are not creative. God will respond to us fully the moment we begin creatively communicating with Him. Once we learn to do that, we become Co-Creators. Our creative spirituality will become enhanced through God, and God's creative spirituality will become enhanced through us. The new co-respondence involves a fortifying and enhancement of both God and Man, a fortification and enhancement that can occur only when we understand our creative role.
Spiritual creativity requires initiative from us. This initiative must derive from freedom. According to William Arkle, once Man shows this initiative, he escapes all determinism and becomes actively creative - to the point that God can no longer accurately predict what Man will do. This is the essence of Co-Creation. This is the essence of the latent spiritual power within us - a latent spiritual power demonstrated fully by Christ.
To sum up, God may appear unresponsive to us because we are essentially unresponsive to Him. The good, solid, traditional methods of communication are no longer sufficient or adequate. The way forward requires spiritual growing-up by embracing freedom and becoming Co-Creators, and it will likely involve a process akin to Romantic Christianity and Berdyaev's third epoch of Christianity.
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